Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: Meta signs multi-decade nuclear energy deal to power its AI data
centers

Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:49:16 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-signs-...

Meta has signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy that will allow
it to purchase nuclear power supplied by the Clinton Clean Energy Center in
southern Illinois. To help fuel its AI ambitions, Meta said in a statement
that it is prioritizing 100 percent clean, renewable energy for its data
centers and recognizes the "immense value of nuclear power in providing
reliable, firm electricity."

Rather than building a new nuclear plant, Meta says its deal with
Constellation for its existing Clinton center will ensure the plant can
remain in operation long-term, preserving over 1,000 local jobs. The deal,
the first of its kind for Meta, commences in 2027, and will see FacebookΓÇÖs
parent company buy in full the approximately 1.1 gigawatts of emissions-free
nuclear energy currently being generated at the site. Meta also committed to
expanding the grid by an additional 30 megawatts. The exact financial details
of the landmark agreement are not detailed in the statement.

Meta has been behind the curve on nuclear, with big tech rivals Google and
Microsoft already buying up significant capacity. In December last year, Meta
confirmed its ambition to add between one and gour gigawatts of nuclear
energy capacity to its US data centers by the early 2030s, so the
Constellation agreement is something of a headstart for Mark ZuckerbergΓÇÖs
company.

Meta did actually plan to build a nuclear-powered data center of its own, but
was reportedly forced to scrap it when a rare bee species was discovered on
the land it had earmarked for the project. According to the Financial Times,
Zuckerberg told staff at the time that Meta would have had the first nuclear
energy AI if the bee-related pivot hadnΓÇÖt been necessary.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-
tech/meta-signs-multi-decade-nuclear-energy-deal-to-power-its-ai-data-centers-
144916645.html?src=rss

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